Wiscombe Park hosted the Five Clubs meeting over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd September. There were rounds 16 and 17 of the Bridge Tyres / ASWMC Championship (just 4 rounds remaining after this weekend - Manor Farm and Tregrehan) and Rounds 7 and 8 of the Bridge Tyres & Wheels Wiscombe Championship (just 1 round remaining after this weekend). The meeting is organised by Plymouth MC - although three other motor clubs are also involved - Bristol, Taunton and Burnham-on-Sea Motor Clubs - in 1996 Haldon MC ceased to exist.
It was a weekend of extremes as far as weather was concerned - Saturday was a lovely sunny day with some cloud - and even saw the appearance of a Spitfire swooping quite low over the hill! However, the heavens opened and Sunday produced a deluge all day with just 1 timed run being possible and some competitors not running at all.
As usual at Wiscombe, there was a very varied entry list of 130 competitors tackling the tricky and popular Devon hill. With dry tarmac, the battle amongst the quickest cars was fast and furious. Some unusual cars seen for the first time were Alex De Vries in a Citroen 2CV powered by a BMW motor bike engine.....and 2 Austin A35's - Steve Hill and Roger Coote.
Some new cars are still being bedded in by their owners - Ben Wheeler was out in his Empire Evo 2 with a Suzuki engine - the fifth time Ben has run the car - and Mike Lee had his new OMS 3000M out for the second time. The power comes from a 1500cc Suzuki Hayabusa engine. The rolling chassis cost £23K - add in the engine - Mike retained the engine from his previous OMS chassis - and the package he rekons is approaching £50K.
The battle of the fastest cars saw Ben Wheeler in the Empire Evo coming out on top with a 37.21s BTDBTDBTD - his first win in the car - ahead of Rod Thorne - Pilbeam MP43 on 37.95s and Dave Gardner - Pilbeam MP62 on 38.65s
On Sunday, the conditions played into the hands of the powerful 4 wheel drive machines - Jack Ellis in his Subaru Impreza took BTDBTDBTD with a climb of 45.37s. He won his Class on Saturday with a time of 42.73s.
Top 10
22 Ben Wheeler Empire Evo 2 37.21
30 Rodney Thorne Pilbeam MP43 37.95
11 Dave Gardner Pilbeam MP62 38.65
20 Andrew Forsyth OMS CF04 38.92
31 Doug Bennett Sylva Striker 39.97
36 Stewart Lillington Radical SR4 40.44
14 Andrew Dinner Pilbeam MP82 40.63
24 Alan Bond Stretta R6 40.88
44 Colin Satchell Peugeot 205 41.09
19 Mike Lee OMS 3000 41.20